Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in the United States late on Saturday for an official visit that includes a planned meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday, officials said.
He came a day after the United Nations Security Council removed him from its sanctions list on Friday. Al-Sharaa, a leader of the HTS, earlier considered a terrorist outfit by the US for its alleged links with AL-Qaeda, seized control of Syria last year, forcing the then-president Bashar al-Assad to flee the country. Immediately after Assad’s ouster in December 2024, the US lifted a $10 million (€8.6 million) reward it had earlier put in place for al-Sharaa’s arrest.
Earlier in May, Trump signed an executive order to end the US sanctions on Syria to boost its deteriorating economic conditions and also met al-Sharaa for the first time in Saudi Arabia. Al-Sharaa visited New York in September and became the first Syrian president to address the UN General Assembly in decades.
The visit is termed historic since no Syrian president has ever stepped inside the US White House after the nation’s independence in 1946. Earlier this month, US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said al-Sharaa may sign an agreement to join the US-led alliance against the Islamic State terrorist group.
Al-Sharaa is expected to seek US funding for Syria’s reconstruction, with the World Bank having estimated the cost at $216 billion. Experts describe the figure as reasonable and far from the real figure needed to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, ravaged by 13 years of civil war.
